WOMEN are often accused of being vain. I take issue with that citing the fact that most of us take pride in our appearance, even if it does take us four hours.

WOMEN are often accused of being vain. I take issue with that citing the fact that most of us take pride in our appearance, even if it does take us four hours.

We may be late for a date due to our inability to make any decision over what to wear, but surely it is worth the wait when we plump eventually for the Keira Knightley look-alike green silk dress from Atonement.

Sadly some of us let the side down according to the ‘Vanity and Vision’ poll conducted by Sheilas’ Wheels car insurance. This has revealed that more that 11 per cent of female motorists admitted to being involved in an accident or near miss in the last year as a result of bad eyesight.

The most obvious course of action would be to visit the optician.

Not so according to this research, for 27 per cent of female motorists should wear glasses whilst driving but do not always do so. Oh dear, oh dear. This really is rather blindingly daft not to mention being dangerous.

Some 34 per cent of women polled admitted that they feel ‘self-conscious’ in glasses, 23 per cent said that their specs make them feel ‘unfashionable’ while 10 per cent claimed they were too embarrassed wearing them.

What! With all those really expensive designer frames adorning the optician’s shelves. Count yourself lucky girls, when I was a teenager the only frames we had were thick black-rimmed NHS ones.

I remember working during the summer holidays in a café so I could afford to buy contact lenses.

Perhaps even more worryingly, are the six per cent who believe they can ‘get away with’ not wearing their specs at all for short journeys. Who, I ask, is really going to notice if a driver is or is not wearing glasses? If you still perish the thought, how about contact lenses?

Unfortunately this does not seem to be an option for the 55 per cent of women polled who admitted to slowing down to read road signs.

A further 42 per cent of motorists even rely on their passengers to read road signs for them.

So what happens if that passenger is also too vain to wear her glasses? Talk about the blind leading the blind.